Local viewers of Fox News on Sunday morning might have seen a
familiar face on their screen, as South Georgia Judicial Circuit
District Attorney Joe Mulholland was interviewed by the national
news station about his prosecution of a voter-fraud case in Brooks
County, Ga.

Mulholland spoke to Fox News newsman Eric Shawn for approximately
four-and-a-half minutes about the case, which involves 12 citizens
charged for allegedly tampering in a July 2010 primary election.

According to the Valdosta Daily Times, school board incumbents Gary
Rentz and Myra Exum were leading in their races, before the absentee
ballots were counted. After those 979 absentee ballots were
tabulated, challengers Linda Troutman and Elizabeth Thomas were able
to overtake the incumbents' leads and eventually win election in
November.

Troutman and Thomas, as well as another school board
member, Nancy Whitfield-Dennard. All were charged with three counts
of unlawful possession of ballots and three counts of violation of
procedure for voting by absentee ballots. Ten other people have also
since been charged in connection with the alleged fraud, and most of
those are family members and friends of the three elected officials,
Mulholland said.

“Once an absentee ballot goes out to a voter, it's for that
person only,” Mulholland said. “This was a situation
where some of the individuals, who are charged in the case, were
making sure that the ballots were mailed, and going to the voters'
houses to make sure they got there and that those citizens actually
voted. That's illegal.”

He also said:

“It's pretty clear there was fraud here,” he said.
“Some of the names on those ballots that were returned were
unregistered voters who had been gone for years.”

I'm no lawyer, but is it appropriate for the district attorney
to declare people guilty before trial?

He even declared that he didn't want them tried locally, because:

“You have to convince 12 jurors of that particular county of their guilt.”